1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to cellular telephony, and more specifically to the customization of various cellular telephone service features for specific subscribers.
2. Background Art
Many aspects of existing cellular service are customized to meet the needs of specific subscribers. For example, subscribers must designate a preferred carrier for long-distance telephone calls, oftentimes referred to as the primary inter-exchange carrier (PIC). Subscribers may also choose to implement optional features such as conference calling, call waiting, and/or call forwarding. The specific features and characteristics of a given subscriber's cellular telephone service are specified in the form of a service profile data structure stored at the home mobile telephone switching office (MTSO) of the cellular subscriber. The service profile includes a MIN field designating the mobile identification number (telephone number) of the cellular telephone, an ESN field designating the electronic serial number of the telephone, a services field specifying whether or not each of a plurality of features (call forwarding, conference calling, etc.) are to be performed, a credit field specifying the financial credit rating of the cellular subscriber, a PIC field designating the primary inter-exchange carrier, and a call forwarding field specifying one or more call forwarding numbers.
Oftentimes, a cellular subscriber is situated outside the coverage area of the home MTSO cell sites, and requires service from a cell site of a remote MTSO. The remote MTSO instructs the home MTSO to send a copy of the subscriber's service profile to the remote MTSO and places it into a temporary memory register. Thus, all features available to the subscriber at the home MTSO become available at the remote MTSO (assuming that the remote MTSO is equipped to implement such features). In this manner, irrespective of location, the subscriber will access the same primary inter-exchange carrier and will have the same call-forwarding features.
A method of providing a location-dependent person locator service is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,951 issued to Konneker on Jun. 21, 1988. A database is employed to store a plurality of potential locations for a given telephone subscriber. Each of these potential locations is associated with a corresponding call treatment specification setting forth the manner in which an incoming call is to be handled. In response to an incoming telephone call, the data base is addressed to determine the present location of that subscriber, along with the call treatment specification for that location. The incoming call is then handled in accordance with the call treatment specification. For example, the database may specify that calls received while the subscriber is at remote location "A" are to be directed to the subscriber's home telephone number, whereas calls received while the subscriber is at remote location "B" are to be directed to the subscriber's personal pager.